Golden Moment: Difference between revisions

A staple of the American family-oriented [[Sit ComSitcom]], the [['''Golden Moment]]''' usually occurs in the last few minutes of the episode, when [[An Aesop]] is delivered. After 20+ minutes of hijinks and confusion, Dad sits down with Junior for the following exchange:

{{quote| '''Junior:''' I guess I screwed up, didn't I?<br />

'''Dad:''' I guess so.<br />

'''Junior:''' None of this would have happened if I hadn't been trying to impress people. I just wanted so much for them to like me.<br />

'''Dad:''' Son, anybody who doesn't like you for who you are isn't worth trying to impress.<br />

'''Junior:''' Gee, you're right dad. From now on I'll just [[Be Yourself|be myself]].<br />

[[Dead Horse Trope]] to the fullest. Distinct from [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]], which is what this trope aims at but tends to be too formulaic to reach.

* A fresh twist on the Trope occurs every now and again in ''[[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Oh My Goddess!]]'' (which has ''very'' apparent [[Fantastic Comedy|Supernatural]] [[Dom Com]] elements to it, despite being a [[Bishoujo Series]]. Every time [[Magical Girlfriend|wish-granting goddess Belldandy]] feels like less of a deity because she behaved jealous or stubborn over [[Nice Guy|Keiichi]] ([[Innocent Cohabitation|her]] [[Cannot Spit It Out|sort]][[Unresolved Sexual Tension|-of]] [[Will They or Won't They?|boyfriend]]), he's been there to try to cheer Belldandy up, explaining that it's part of a relationship.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'': Michael and George Michael, his son, are making snacks and discussing their plot of that episode. George Michael remarks that he doesn't need his dad to stay out of his life, he's the biggest part of his life. Michael states, refering to the snack they are making, "That's a little cornball, son."

* ''[[Happy Days]]'' has an episode in season one where, after going through gang initiation which involved pulling pranks on a policeman, stealing their principal's toupe, and going to a sockhop in dresses, Potsie and Richie realize that Mr. Cunningham was right--theyright—they didn't even like the guys they were trying to impress and should have just been themselves all along. Mr. C then comes in and has a little chat with Richie which ends on a corny joke.

** It's also subverted a lot in ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]''. To cite one example, in the episode "Haylias", Stan tries to brainwash Hayley so she'll start behaving like [[Stay in Thethe Kitchen|he feels a woman should]], but a bug in the program causes her to want to kill Stan instead. As Hayley holds him at gunpoint, Stan sees the light and apologizes to Hayley for trying to control her life. {{spoiler|She shoots him in the head.}}

* Parodied in ''[[The Tick (animation)]]''. The titular superhero would often end the episode by declaring "I think we've all learned something today!" and then [[Cloudcuckoolander|deliver an aesop that made no sense whatsoever]].

* See also: the Wheel of Morality on ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'' which was only played straight once: in [[The Movie]], ''[[Wakko's Wish (Film)|Wakkos Wish]]''.

* In ''[[ThaliasThalia's Musings]]'', [[Cloudcuckoolander's Minder|Apollo]] attempts to invoke this trope after Thalia has a narrow brush with [[God Save Us From the Queen|Hera's]] wrath. Thalia can't take it seriously and doubts he does, either.

{{quote| '''Apollo:''' Well, that's the end of that. I hope you've learned something.<br />